Bike Age are from Stuttgart, Germany and they released their new record with Twisted Chords. There are 10 song on the record, one being No Use For A Name cover of Exit. The music of Bike Age is nothing new, nothing complicated, but that is the beauty of this band and this album. The guys play old school 90-is melodic skatepunk in the vein of all those old Cali Fat Wreck and Epitaph early bands like NUFAN, Nofx, Bad Religion, Lagwagon and others. That means beautiful vocals and backing vocal harmonies, catchy and nice melodic guitar riffs, fast drumming mixed with some mid tempo punkrock and of course, anthemic singalong choruses just made to sing along and hum all day long. Recommended songs that I somehow think are best on the album are Duty, 99%.
Crossed Keys from Philadelphia are in no way strangers to the scene because the band features people who played in Halo of Snakes, Kid Dynamite and Good Riddance among others and this is the new record out with Hell Minded Records. There are seven songs of nice melodic punkrock/pop punk on this record, played with heart and soul with catchy, beautiful melodic guitar parts, smart lyrics and superb singing courtesy of Joshua Alvarez. This whole material reminded me a lot of The Descendents, just simple, no bullshit and no philosophy punkrock just made to make you happy and smile and make your crappy day better. Recommended songs: True To You, Everything Breaks.
Year Of The Fist are from Oakland California and this is their latest record out with Heart On Records. There are 11 songs on this record. The music they play is fast forward energetic mix of punk and rock n roll, kinda like Black Flag or Ramones met Motorhead and jammed together for a record. But, don´t get me wrong, this band is in no way anyone˙s clone or a copy, they remained energetic, fresh, fast and a real pleasure for listening. Besides faster songs like Ghosts or Blood Bath, there are couple of more mid tempo rock n roll songs like Memory Burn which add perfectly to the whole picture. Katie´s and Squeaky˙s voices interplay perfectly with Hal9000beers´s voice creating great haunting melodies just made for you to listen them on repeat day after day. For all you punkrockers who like your punkrock energetic, raw yet melodic this is a keeper!
KRAYKULLA-WEBZINE 